Leafing Through

Robert Bly Bliss

         

Friday I was hoping to get to see Ray Bradbury but as death was knocking on my door in the form of a really bad cold, I didn't make it. I DID however make it to Robert Bly last night. What a great night! It flew by. I was really worried to begin with as it was advertised as being 3 hours long. That seems a bit long for me to sit. It ended up being about 2 hours only and it flew by. What a fantastic night.

Background

Robert Bly was born 1926 in Minnesota, he served in the second World War, after this he attended St. Olaf college for a year, until the dean pissed him off ( Bly_Goes_to_College.mp3 ) and he looked around for a new college and settled at Harvard. It was there that he met a lot of other soon to be famous poets who would help change the face of poetry in America.  During his career he has translated tons of poetry from around the world.  He's been married twice, has four children and to my eye looked to be an incredibly spry eighty year old man.

The Reading

I wasn't sure what to expect from this man.  I knew some of his poetry, and had studied him a bit in college, but who knew that he'd be so funny. He had the audience almost in tears at times. Especially when he read this ( Funky_Smell.mp3 ) poem. I don't know what it's called but I'll look it up and get back to you. I had to edit out a LOT of the laughter so that you could hear the man.

What captured my attention almost immediately was his complete love of language and the way that poetry is able to capture it. While reading translations of Antonio Machado's poems he is moved even then by the language and imagery Antonio_Machado.mp3. Here the sound quality isn't so great, as the sound people didn't give him a mike to wear until the second half of the reading and he had to struggle with reading, holding open his book and holding the mike. But you can get the general feeling of how he loves not only the poems but the stories that go with them. And here, Function_of_Poetry.mp3 , he speaks of the function of poetry in a way that tells me that even after all these years (the man is over 80 for goodness sake) he is still captivated by language and is continually finding new ways to experiment with it.

Many of the poems that he read to us he hadn't read outloud before.  He would read through it, then re-read it so that not only would we have a better understanding of it, but so would he. He made us laugh again and again when he would read a line then mutter, "I don't know what that means".  Which is a sign to me that he doesn't take himself too seriously and I like that in a writer. 

The Choir

Every time I go to a reading I end up sitting behind what I like to call The Choir.  The Choir isn't always the same people/person but in theory it is.  It is always made up of middle aged women who arrive to the reading with their oversized frumpy bags stuffed to the hilt with kleenex, eight or nine books by the author, and who knows what else, I'm afraid to think about it too much. They also almost all have the dyed red hair, a hue of unrivaled red, capable of signaling aircraft if stranded on a desert island, that women over 45 seem to be drawn to. I call them the choir because throughout the reading they will invariably nod and make mmmm sounds as if to say to the author "yes, yes, I've always found that to be true," "Amen, brother, amen." They believe that the author REALLY wants to know what they think, and that of COURSE he would love to know that they THINK that he should have used such and such a word on page 78 rather than the one painstakingly chosen by him/her.  They are ALWAYS at readings. No matter who I go to see, there they are, sitting in the first and second rows, nodding and mmming to every word uttered from the author's mouth. I'm one reading away from screaming SHUT UP! and strangling them with their oversized bags.

Bong Hits 4 Sandra Day O'Conner

Yes I know that she's not a Justice anymore but it sounds funny.

What is Bong Hits 4 Jesus? How could anyone possibly forget this story?  However, I have been nicely surprised by the coverage found in the local Anchorage Daily News. This is a case that I have been following off and on for the last five years. It's an important case that originated right here in little ol' Alaska. Before I get too carried away let me give you the history of the beast.

History

Five years ago in Juneau (capital of the state) high school student Joe Frederick was sitting in the hallway of the school reading when the vice-principal came up to him and informed him that he couldn't be in the hallway unattended. He told her that he had a right to sit in HIS school and read french existentialists. She called the cops, and he left (I think she hates Camus). In protest to this unjust treatment he turned his back on the flag during the pledge of allegiance (who the hell still says the pledge of allegiance after the 5th grade)? His father was called to the school, they wanted to talk about a possible suspension. By this time Joe was a mite upset, and he decided to do something to raise the freedom of speech issue.  Boy did he.

January 24, 2002: the boy and his friends unfurled a banner reading Bong Hits 4 Jesus as the Olympic torch passed by. The principal, Deborah Morse, crossed the street and crumpled up his banner. She then suspended him from school for ten days.  It was originally five days but he talked back, quoting Jefferson on free speech (what? a kid who learned something in school, clearly a trouble maker). The next week, while serving his suspension he was arrested for trespass because he was parked at the municipal swimming pool. His car was impounded and searched for drugs, he didn't have any, but they still listed a Taco Bell straw as drug paraphernalia. The charges were dropped after they realized that his car wasn't as close to the school property line as they had thought. Oops, their bad. 

When Joe finally went back to school he was once again suspended  for wearing a Leatherman tool in the hallway. He was arrested yet again for failing to signal while driving, police saying that he had failed to pay a previous fine. Yet again they were mistaken, clerical error. Sorry Joe. Tired of being harassed Joe sued the city for harassment.  The city agreed to pay him $22,000 without conceding that they were in the wrong.

Eventually his father got fired. He was the risk manager for the school district's insurance company. The company was going to have to shell out some major bucks due to the federal lawsuit. For a long time he was able to just avoid anything dealing with the suit.  When the company wanted him to intervene with his son and he refused they demoted, and then fired him. He sued the company and was awarded $200,000 plus legal fees. Although after this he was unable to find work in the insurance business and took a job teaching English in China.

That's the short, short version of the matter. 

The Case:

School District's Point: Joe violated the school district's anti-drug policy by holding up the banner and a quasi-school event.

Joe's Point: The school had no right to violate his freedom of speech.

Joe appealed several times to the school board. After they did nothing he filed a suit in in the district court (That's the U.S. district court for the district of Alaska). They thought that the school district had a valid point: their drug policy is clearly stated.  Joe appealed this decision to the next court: the ninth circuit. Well they thought otherwise. The court, relying on Tinker v. Des Moines INdependent Community School District (1969), where the Supreme Court upheld the right's of students to wear anti-war armbands. The ninth district panel held that Joe had not disturbed the school's educational function. Not only that but they're holding Ms. Morse personally liable for this, yep, she's going to have to shell out the money herself. Here's some bits from the opinion:

to school that day prior to the banner display, that the banner display was off school property across Glacier Avenue from the campus, and that there were a lot of people, students and non-students, there to watch the torch pass. Other students filed affidavits saying that they were just released, not required to stay together or with their teachers, except for the gym class, and school administrators did not attempt to stop students who got bored and left. Frederick says that the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” language was designed to be meaningless and funny, in order to get on television, but Principal Morse says that “bong hits” means puffs of marijuana and the words promote marijuana use.

Frederick says (without contradiction) that he had not gone

Thus, the question comes down to whether a school may, in the absence of concern about disruption of educational activities, punish and censor non-disruptive, off-campus speech by students during school-authorized activities because the speech promotes a social message contrary to the one favored by the school. The answer under controlling, long-existing precedent is plainly “No.”

Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to supres speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself. What schools are entitled to do, as Fraser makes clear, is supress speech that disrupts the good order necessary to conduct their educational function. No educational function was disrupted by the banner displayed during the Coca-Cola sponsored Olympics event. One can hypothoesize off-campus events for which the students might be released that would be educational and curricular in nature and would be disrupted by speech such as Fredrick's. For example, on a school field trip as part of the social studies curriculum to observe a court in session, it might be the case that the school ban the wearing of Cohen's famous jacket. But a Coca Cola sponsered promotion as the Olympic torch passed by on a public street was not such an event.

"Thus, having determined that the "facts alleged show [Morse's] conduct violated a constitutional right" that "the right was clearly established," and that "it would be clear to a reasonable [principal] that [her] conduct was unlawful in the situation [she] confronted," we hold that the defendant Morse is not entitled to qualified immunity.

Morse has petioned the Supreme Court and they took the case, not only that BUT president himself asked them to. It should come as no surprise to you that he wants them to find that schools have more power over students, their activities and their rights.

The Players

Ah, the wonderous Kenneth Starr, defender of schools and prosecutor of philandering presidents. His firm is representing the principal Morse pro bono.

Douglas Mertz of Juneau, Alaska. Bet he never thought that he'd get to the Supreme Court.

Edwin Kneedler: Filing as Amicus Curiae supporting petitioners aka:  He, on behalf of the Deputy Solicitor General is supporting Ms. Morse's position. This sort of thing happens all the time.

Oral argument was heard on Monday and boy did the Justices rip a new one for just about everyone. Seems they're pretty pissed off about the whole thing.

They're pissed that people might try to infringe upon constitutional rights.

They're pissed that this is even an issue

They're pissed off that Morse wasn't granted immunity from suit.

They're pissed that Joe wants any money at all.

Now we just wait a few months to see what the verdict is.

Banned Book Wednesday

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This Friday, through live simulcast (isn't simulcast always live though?) Ray Bradbury will be at the Lousac Library to discuss his book Fahrenheit 451 for The Big Read.  I'm glad I already have a copy as there aren't many left on the bookstore shelves. As an homage (you're not one of those horrible people who say it oh maj are you? You probably say her b rather than erb too don't you? I'm keeping my eye on you pal) to his appearance I'm dedicating this BBW to this most famous of his books.

     I first got ahold of this book in high school, a teacher had us read that, Animal Farm, Brave New World (the book where I learned the word ignoble), Anthem (I hate you Ayn Rand), and 1984.  It was a bit of an overload to a seventeen year old. Perhaps if she had spaced them out I would have liked 1984, but it just seemed to drag and drag and drag, by the end I wanted Winston dead just so the book would end. Brave New World though was great. Sorry, I digress. By now you all know how I feel about the burning of books and so this story really took hold in my mind.  I could see this actually happening, I could see a couple of my fellow students chasing down a person just to run them over for the fun of the thing. It didn't really seem like the far distant future to me and it frightened me. It really scared the crap out of me. I didn't want to live in a future like that, and I swore that I wouldn't let it happen.  It's always stayed with me in the back of my mind. It's perhaps due to this book that my loathing for anything that quashes the freedom of speech is so pronounced, but more on that later. 

A Bit of History

Bradbury wrote the book in 1951 orginally as a novella in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction. It was published as a book in 1953. There has been at least one movie and several radio dramatizations made of it. The book concerns itself with what Bradbury calls the "thought-destroying force" of censorship aka the book burnings in Nazi Germany and Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the Soviet Union. What is most ironic about this book is that unbeknowst to Bradbury, his editor released a censored version of the book in 1967. This version eliminated the words "damn" and "hell".  Bradbury put a stop to that and later versions of the book include a coda where he dicusses his views of censorship, even well meant censorship.

Banning of the Book 

When the book was released in 1953 the United States was clenched in the thrall of Josesph McCarthy, or as I like to call him Mr. Grouchy Pants.  Anyway, Mr. Pants was at the helm of a huge hunt for anyone who might be a Communist.  He couldn't stand communists, they killed his father (all of them, all at the same time, killed his father)*. He convinced other people to hate the Communists too, and they went along because it was before MTV and they didn't have Bevis and Butthead to watch in order to kill time. Plus, Mensa had rejected their applications and their egos were still smarting from this.  So all of these people with nothing to do, and bruised wittle egos set their sights on Terrorists er I mean Communists and they had all of these hearings at Congress because they heard from a guy called Arthur Miller ** that this was the thing to do to people who your cousin's friend's boyfriend's sister said might be a Communist. Bradbury's book (an expanded version of his original) was partially in response to the censorship brought on by Mr. Pants and his gang of Mensa rejects. 

** Just to let you know in case you didn't Arthur Miller's book The Crucible was written in response to the McCarthy trials. Oh, and Communists didn't kill J.M's father (thought that I'd clear that up).

Bradbury's book would be banned all over the United States, in fact, it is still banned in many high schools due to language (yeah, like your 17 year old hasn't heard the world damn before). 

Although it's legnthy I want to post Bradbury's coda:

About two years ago, a letter arrived from a solemn young Vassar lady telling me how much she enjoyed reading my experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles.

But, she added, wouldn't it be a good idea, this late in time, to rewrite the book inserting more women's characters and roles?

A few years before that I got a certain amount of mail concerning the same Martian book complaining that the blacks in the book were Uncle Toms and why didn't I "do them over"?

Along about then came a note from a Southern white suggesting that I was prejudiced in favor of the blacks and the entire storyx` should be dropped.

Two weeks ago my mount of mail delivered forth a pip-squeak mouse of a letter from a well-known publishing house that wanted to reprint my story "The Fog Horn" in a high school reader.

In my story, I had described a lighthouse as having, late at night, an illumination coming from it that was a "God-Light." Looking up at it from the viewpoint of any sea-creature one would have felt that one was in "the Presence."

The editors had deleted "God-Light" and "in the Presence."

Some five years back, the editors of yet another anthology for school readers put together a volume with some 400 (count 'em) short stories in it. How do you cram 400 short stories by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book?

Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito - out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch - gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer - lost!

Every story, slenderized, starved, blue-penciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Doestoevsky read like - in the finale - Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention - shot dead.

Do you begin to get the damned and incredible picture? How did I react to all of the above?

By "firing" the whole lot.

By sending rejection slips to each and every one.

By ticketing the assembly of idiots to the far reaches of hell.

The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist, Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib / Republican, Mattachine / FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.

"Shut the door, they're coming through the window, shut the window, they're coming through the door," are the words to an old song. The fit my lifestyle with newly arriving butchers/censors every month. Only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel which, after all, deals with censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy Del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place.

A final test for old Job II here: I sent a play, Leviathan 99, off to a university theater a month ago. My play is based on the "Moby Dick" mythology, dedicated to Melville, and concerns a rocket crew and a blind space captain who venture forth to encounter a Great White Comet and destroy the destroyer. My drama premieres as an opera in Paris this autumn.

But, for now, the university wrote back that they hardly dared to my play - it had no women in it! And the ERA ladies on campus would descend with ballbats if the drama department even tried.

Grinding my bicuspids into powder, I suggested that would mean, from now on, no more productions of Boys in the Band (no women), or The Women (no men). Or, counting heads, male and female, a good lot of Shakespeare that would never be seen again, especially if you count lines and find that all the good stuff went to the males!

I wrote back maybe they should do my play one week, and The Women the next. They probably thought I was joking, and I'm not sure that I wasn't.

For it is a mad world and it will get madder if we allow the minorities, be they dwarf or giant, orangutan or dolphin, nuclear-head or water-conversationalist, pro-computerologist or Neo-Luddite, simpleton or sage, to interfere with aesthetics. The real word is the playing ground for each and every group, to make or unmake laws. But the tip of the nose of my book or stories or poems is where their rights end and my territorial imperatives begin, run and rule. If Mormons do not like my plays, let them write their own. If the Irish hate my Dublin stories, let them rent typewriters. If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmilk teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture. If the Chicano intellectuals wish to re-cut my "Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" so it shapes "Zoot," may the belt unravel and the pants fall.

For, let's face it, digression is the soul of wit. Take philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet's father's ghost and what stays is dry bones. Laurence Sterne said it once: Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine, the life, the soul of reading! Take them out and one cold eternal winter would reign in every page. Restore them to the writer - he steps forth like a bridegroom, bids them all-hail, brings in variety and forbids the appetite to fail.

In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book.

All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It's my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset I've won or lost. At sunrise, I'm going out again, giving it the old try.

And no one can help me. Not even you."

     -- Ray Bradbury

 

Paper Bag=Book Cover

When I was in Junior High we were issued books that had to come back in new like condition, so our homeroom teachers showed us all how to make covers for them out of paper bags from the grocers. Of course, having an older sister who had brought home paper covered books years before I already had forced the knowledge of how to cover my books from her. In fact a lot of my books at home were covered in brown paper. This dear reader was not only because of my insane inability to damage a book, to even crease the spine (oh lordy); but also because of my insane desire improve upon my sister's shoddy book coverings. Once I mastered the technique, I quickly recovered hers so that all of the corners were straight and creased nicely. Yes, I know, I was quite crazy even at nine.  Anyway, I was longing for one of those covers again and for some reason couldn't remember quite how to do it.  Here's a tutorial that I found. It's pretty good but notice how wrinkled the paper is? How the end result doesn't quite line up? How she didn't tape the sides together to keep the paper from shifting around later on? If she were my older sister, I'd have to sneak into her bedroom at night to steal her books to redo the whole mess. And here is a videothat shows proper folding technique but is weird because he didn't turn the logo to the inside. How is he supposed to put stickers and funny poems and sayings on it? That's the BEST part of the brown paper bag cover! Some people have no sense of how to properly do things. Also, note that you can see the tape. If he would JUST tape the inside (next to the exterior of the cover) to the interior of the paper bag cover then he wouldn't look slipshod.  Oh well. Have fun making yours! And don't worry, I won't slip into your bedroom at night to fix your crappy job....that's what you have a little sister for.

Adopt-An-Author

Molly sent me an article about this great program that the Fairbanks North Star Borough Libraries has that seems to be a fun program. The program in Fairbanks allows patrons of the library to sign up to purchase books for the library by a specific author. From the site "Patrons must sign an agreement, and the agreements must be renewed each year" (I think this means that the agreement doesn't roll over, rather than you must buy these books for all eternity). "Patrons may choose to pay either for all copies of each title purchased, or for only the first copy of each title. The library usually buys one copy of most titles but we may buy as many as 5 or 6 copies for Alaska or the most popular fiction authors."  This sounds like a great way to make sure that your favorite author is at the library AND they give you dibs on the first check out when it arrives.  Beware, the books are library binding copies so are a lot more expensive than say your bookstore: 25-30 dollar hardback copy. They're about $100 each. But still, it's a nice way to control where you're funds are going and you get a bookplate in the books saying that it was donated by non other than you (or perhaps dedicated to a deceased loved one). 

Food is Sex

If you're like me and you like Anthony Bourdain's edgy, no holds barred, chain-smoking, unapologetic hatred of lazy cooks, bad food, and people who won't try new things, then you'll love the audio version of his book Kitchen Confidential. In this book, Bourdain takes the reader/listener on a trip through his memories of discovery what food was all about and the underbelly of restaurant kitchens across the U.S. with it's coke/meth/pot using, sex driven staff, it's fights, bad food mistakes and other things so horrible that a reader might never again dine out.  The best part: he's as funny as ever. I've been half in love with Bourdain since I first discovered his Cook's Tour show on the travel channel.  In just one episode I saw the man smoke 15 cigarettes, drink 18 whiskeys and swear more than I thought possible on national television at that time in the day. Wow, I thought, who is this mad-man roving the planet eating puffins, iguanas, freshly made tortillas, all the while smoking, drinking and making snide comments? I was drawn in by his utter lack of care about his bad habits. I'm not a fan of smokers, as most are rude and are, of late, made ruder by a defensive stance regarding their unpopular habit. Bourdain on the other hand is almost unaware of his smoking. It really is habit for him. Soon, you might even fail to see his cigarette hanging half out of his mouth while talking to a Bedouin.  You should visit his site where you can read excerpts of books, listen to audio excerpts, and if you're up to it watch him eat a still beating heart of a cobra (I wasn't up to it myself). This is one of the extremely rare books that I recommend listening to over reading.  While Bourdain is a great writer, his sarcastic attitude comes out so well when he reads the book. The Gaurdian has this to say about it

The fierce energy of this exposé is heightened by Bourdain's cracking New York delivery. He reads in the same way he works - at a run. But it's more than that: it's Bourdain's passionate, unquenchable love affair with the whole gruesome business.

Also at his site is his recipe for Vichyssoise, the soup that woke him up to the potential of food on his trip to France when he was nine. So go on out, buy the audio, at $20 it's pretty cheap for the eight hours of pleasure you'll get out of it.   

Banned Book Wednesday

The Witches by Roald Dahl

            

Several people have mentioned this book to me and I must admit, it’s a great one.  It also ranks as the 9^th most banned book on the

ALA

’s list.  I love Roald Dahl, but what kid doesn’t.  Certainly no child that I would have played with.  Dahl’s books have been banned across the nation for several reasons.  I think that parents don’t like that in many of his stories there are scary, terrifying and evil adults, along with a lot of black humor the macabre.  In quite a few of his books, authoritarian adults are wicked and are punished severely by the end of his book.  For instance, in Matilda, not only are the parents neglectful of her, but the head of the school torments the children.  His lack of remorse for these people and their comeuppance in the end of his books most likely leads some adults want to ban his books. Here are some of the other reasons that people have banned his The Witches:

-He has been accused of sexism by some groups, due to the fact that most of his evil characters are women. These critics point to statements such as the following in making their case against Dahl: "But the fact remains that all witches are women. There is no such thing as a male witch". However, these same people seem to ignore the statement that follows the first: "On the other hand, a ghoul is always a male". They also have clearly not read some of his adult stories, remember the one where the wife is abused by her husband and she may or may not have let him die? (Can anyone remember what that one is called)?

-Adults often die in his books, in James and the Giant Peach, the parents are killed by a rhino that got loose from the zoo, in The Witches I think the parents are killed in a car accident.  This is seen as too traumatic for children. 

-Evil people and creatures are usually either captured and kept locked up, or as in The Witches turned into mice.  There is no salvation for the wicked in Dahl’s world. 

-Dahl was Anti-Semitic.

-(And this is my favorite) He is sometimes criticized by witches and other magical groups for portraying witches in a poor light.

While Dahl was anti-Semitic and wrote an opinion of

Israel

that kept him from receiving a knighthood, most children don’t know this and it doesn’t come across in his writing for children. If we're banning books due to their author's beliefs then perhaps we shouldn't be teaching Poe in high schools. 

       Do you remember how horrible the witches were? There were scary, and wanted to rid the world of children. Also, the whole square toes thing creeped me out, more than the blue saliva even.  What I love about the book is that the kid stays a mouse. There’s no remedy for him, but he doesn’t seem to mind so that’s ok.  If you watched the movie and haven’t read the book, then you should know that they differ greatly in the end.  The movie has a happier ending where the kids are turned back.  Dahl was so upset about this that he protested with a megaphone outside of theaters telling people not to see the movie. 

     As sad as it is that he never saw any of his books turned into movies that he liked (he also hated Willy Wonka), I think his dark books paved the way for books such as Harry Potter and the Lemony Snicket books.  With a few generations of kids growing up on Dahl, dark children’s books have become more acceptable (although those books have their critics and book burners as well). 

The Spoken Word: Authors in Town

         Living in Anchorage, Alaska has its pluses and minuses. Plus: amazing mountainous views everyday, along with tons of hiking, biking and general outdoor activity locations. Minus: No one ever comes here. It’s so hard to get famous people to visit Alaska. We basically have to bribe them with fishing trips or other fun “Alaskan” things. That’s why I’m shocked at the number of authors that are going to be in town. I’m getting tickets to everything if I can.

       The first person coming isn’t really coming here. The Anchorage Municipal Libraries has joined other libraries nationwide for The Big Read. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Anchorage has decided to read Fahrenheit 451 by the always interesting Ray Bradbury. On Friday, March 23rd at 3:30pm you can haul your carcass to the Assembly Chambers, Loussac, Level 1 (see I even gave you precise directions) to listen to Mr. Bradbury talk about literature, literacy, and hopefully his books. Don’t forget to read the book first.

      

The next person to come is Robert Bly, famous American poet, and activist. He will be appearing Monday, March 26th from 7-10 pm call 786-4330 for ticket information.

      

The VERY next day T.C. Boyle will be swinging by our little city, and the best part? His reading is FREE! Just go to uaatix.com to get tickets.

Then, and to me this seems to be an eternity from now, in May, David Sedaris is coming. I already got tickets for that and you better too if you want to see him, they’re selling really fast and there hasn’t even been any advertising, just word of mouth. You can go here to get tickets and more information.

      

After that on May 29th Michael Chabon comes to Title Wave books in order to promote his newest book : The Yiddish Policeman’s Union which sounds as wonderful as his Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I hope to make it to most of these. I have tickets to Robert Bly, T.C. Boyle and David Sedaris. We’ll have to see if I make it to Michael Chabon.

Wired For Books: The Spoken Word

         One thing that I enjoy is listening to authors read their work, especially poetry. It brings a whole new life to the piece.  I also enjoy a good reading of basically any book.  I used to be one to snub audio books, they were for the lazy, dim witted people out there who couldn’t be bothered to pick up a book and stick with it.  Then, one fateful weekend I decided on a whim that I wanted to visit my parents.  They live four hours away, that proved to be a problem as I also had to finish reading a book for class by Monday morning.  Lazy, dim witted me shuffled off to the library and praised my lucky stars that they had an audio copy.  It was the fastest four hour drive of my life, I almost didn’t want to get out of the car because I hadn’t finished the book.  I was hooked.  Truth be told there are some awful, horrific, audio books out there.  Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to read for audio books.  I almost fell asleep in my car attempting to listen to The Cossacks.  On the other hand some readers bring characters to life, I’m not advocating switching over entirely to audio books, in fact, most of the books that I listen to are ones that I’ve previously read.  On the other hand it does give me a chance to “read” certain books that I wouldn’t have necessarily picked up to read. 

            I also love to listen to authors talk about their work.  The first time that I had the chance to go and watch an author was the time when Sherman Alexie came into town. (Have I told you how hot he is?). He was so great; I had The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and promptly ran out to buy some of his other works.  (No, really, he’s totally hot).  Last year I also had the opportunity to go and listen to Barbara Kingsolver, it was really fun to hear her. 

            Where is all of this going? Well while doing some research for last week’s Banned Book Wednesday I stumbled upon this site.  It has tons of interviews with authors, authors reading their works, famous people reading famous works and a surplus of other delights for your ears.

            It describes itself as such: “For many years, most of the best writers of the English language found their way to Don Swaim's CBS Radio studio in New York. The one-on-one interviews typically lasted 30 to 45 minutes and then had to be edited down to a two-minute radio show. Wired for Books is proud to make these important oral documents publicly available for the first time in their entirety. Listen to the voices of many of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.”

          You should check it out.  Judy Blume is on there, talking about the banning of her books. In response to the question of "who has banned your books?"

Parental groups who are afraid to deal with the issues, with the feelings, that I write about. They think somehow that if their kids don't read about these things, their kids won't think about these things. Sexuality, death, money, again, real life, the issues of daily living, and somehow they don't want their children to question, they don't want their children to think, then they won't have to deal with their kids.